


Lean on Me

by SelenaTerna



Series: Prompt Fics [4]
Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, Established Relationship, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, Trigger warning for discussion of violence against children (non-explicit), Trigger warning for non-explicit violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-03
Updated: 2017-07-03
Packaged: 2018-11-22 21:24:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11388723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SelenaTerna/pseuds/SelenaTerna
Summary: Rose rescues a young boy from being beaten, and the situation gets complicated, quickly.





	Lean on Me

**Author's Note:**

  * For [goingtothetardis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/goingtothetardis/gifts).



> Hello lovelies! This is a MUCH OVERDUE prompt fill for Heidi for her prompt 'why don't you make me?' over on Tumblr. Sorry it's taken forever and a day to get to it! My stupid muse was being very rude and it's been rewritten a few times, although truth be told I'm still not very happy with it.  
> I've taken a somewhat different approach to this one and I'm not sure how well it's worked, as I don't usually write a lot of action type scenes....
> 
> At any rate, please forgive this little experiment and I hope you don't hate it!
> 
> Trigger warning for mentions of physical violence against a child (non-explicit) and physical violence generally (non-explicit).

“Put it down!”

Rose pushed the terrified young boy securely behind her and braced herself, levelling the stolen blaster at the approaching guards. “Back off!”

The five men stopped in their tracks and watched her warily. “We do not mean you any harm- this is all a misunderstanding.” The leader smiled in what he obviously thought was a fatherly manner. “Why don’t you put that weapon down so we can discuss this rationally?” He stretched out his arm. “ How about you pass it to me so we can talk?”

Rose scowled as she remembered stumbling across the five grown men beating the small child and tightened her grip on the blaster. “How about you _make_ me?”

The guard briefly clenched his jaw before continuing in a deceptively mild tone. “As I said, we have no wish to hurt you. Return the child and you have my word we will let you go free with no penalty or charge.”

“Oh, s’at all?” She growled, rage boiling within her. “Just hand over the kid so you can finish beatin’ him half to death and I just go on my merry way, yeah?” She barked a harsh laugh. “I don’t think so. Now back off!!” 

The guard sneered, dropping his miserable attempt at peacemaking.  “You don’t even know how to use it, foolish child!” 

“You reckon?” She levelled the gun at the enraged alien. “Come one step closer and we’ll see if I can or not.” 

The guard stopped short. “It is a high crime to interfere in the administration of justice!”

“ _Justice_?” She stared. “You call it _justice_ to beat a kid half to death? For stealin’ a piece of stale bread from the rubbish to feed his sick mother? What kind of _justice_ is _that_?” 

“It is the law,” the guard intoned. “And the law must be upheld.”

 Rose narrowed her eyes. “The law’s supposed protect people, not punish poor kids diggin’ through the rubbish to survive!” Her voice shook with anger. “The law’s supposed to protect the innocent and punish the guilty. Your law says that when a man throw’s somethin’ out he doesn’t own it anymore, so you _know_ this boy did nothin’ illegal.” She growled. “How much does that corrupt wanker pay you to ‘discipline’ people, then? Bet it’s a nice little income on the side.” She bared her teeth in a vicious grin. “Corruption’s against the law, you know. Wonder how long you’d last if you were found out, what with your new chancellor and all?”

The guard paled with anger. “The new chancellor is a weak fool, no more than a figurehead! He will not aid you. You will comply immediately or else you will face the consequences!” 

Rose laughed mockingly. “Yeah, I don’t think so. I reckon you’ve just landed yourself in a world of trouble.”

The guards laughed. “Is that so?” The leader smirked. “And why is that?”

Rose regarded him with grim satisfaction. “While you lot have been off linin’ your pockets for the past few weeks, we’ve been helpin’ your new chancellor weed out every last corrupt wanker of a guard in this city. New recruits have been takin’ over, an’ the rotten ones have been taken and tried by the Council. They're all in prison waiting to be sentenced. Your lot are some of the last to follow.” She smirked. “Oh, and by the way? I’m bugged- have been the whole time. They heard every word you just said.”

The guard stared at her, anger warring with fear on his face. “You lie.” 

“Yeah?” Rose gestured with her chin to the now visible fifty armed soldiers, appearing a few hundred feet behind her as they removed their suppressor bands. They’d come as soon as she’d activated her beacon in the alley-way- as had someone else. She knew _he’d_ come, could feel him in her mind and had known he’d refuse to stay in the city with the chancellor once her distress call had come. “Tell that to _them_.”

On seeing an entire unit of the Most Honourable Army of the Itoan Republic, the majority of the guards cried surrender and laid down their weapons. Rose doubted their easy capitulation. True, they _might_ have decided that the five of them couldn’t last against a whole unit of fully armed soldiers, but somehow, she doubted it. It was more likely that they were planning something, a last ditch escape attempt of sorts. She forced herself  to stay completely focused, knowing they’d be more dangerous than they were before and the unit was still at least a hundred feet away. Thinking quickly, she turned to the small child cowering behind her.

“Quick, run to the others over there! Run to the soldiers! Quick!”

The child stumbled away, barely able to move and she held her breath, waiting for the attack she knew would come now that she’d removed the easiest target and their probable bargaining chip from the situation.

Her suspicions were proven correct when the leader aimed his blaster at her. 

“ _You_! Your meddling has cost us everything!” 

Rose didn’t flinch. “Put it down.”

“And why should I do that?” he sneered. “I could easily kill you before they take me and I’d rather be killed than tried by those fools.”

 “That can be arranged, Zamar,” the unit captain boomed from a hundred feet away, his voice carried by the enhancers the soldiers wore. “Surrender immediately or be shot as mutinous rebel- I do not care which.”

Zamar growled and lunged at Rose. She had been expecting it and quickly dodged, kicking out at him. He howled as her foot connected with his shin and lunged again, this time aiming his blaster at the fleeing child. At that, her carefully controlled anger broke loose, her blood boiling in her veins, and she lashed out unthinkingly, tripping the tall alien and pressing the blaster to his head. 

“Don’t. Move,” she growled, her mind full of images of how they’d hurt the boy. “Or I swear I’ll end you here and now.”

The man froze.

She didn’t know how long she stood like that, the hated weapon pressed against the head of the poor excuse for a being in front of her. She was so consumed with rage and righteous anger that it took all she had not to move, not to punish the bastard and finish him for good. Somehow, though, she held on, distantly knowing she shouldn’t, that she’d regret it later.

Suddenly, a familiar, beloved voice in Northern tones spoke beside her. “Rose, love,” the Doctor said, drawing her from the angry haze. “Let him go. The soldiers have him now.”

Her arm trembled and she turned her face to the Doctor, her eyes swirling with rage. “He was goin’ to shoot a kid! An unarmed kid!”  She turned back to her captive and absently noticed someone clamping suppressor cuffs on Zamar. 

She didn’t lower the weapon.

“I know, love,” the Doctor said quietly, gently placing his hand on her arm. “He’s scum, and he’s goin’ to be punished, but not by us. He’s for the law, now. We’ve done our bit.”

Rose trembled. “He would have killed that boy, would’ve killed _me_ without a second thought.” She could feel the Doctor’s roiling emotions at that through their bond, even as he moved to sooth her and strangely enough, his fear-filled rage gave her the strength to take hold of her own anger and tamp it down slightly.

"But that’s not what _we_ do." His voice was strong, sure. "Look at him Rose- he’s unarmed and restrained.” He slowly inched his hand towards the blaster. “You’re better than that, my Rose, better than them.” He exhaled. “Please, Rose, give me the gun.”

In spite of her rage, she wanted to, she really did, because somewhere in her mind a voice was screaming that this wasn’t her, this wasn’t _them_. It was one thing to protect a child, one thing to defend herself but now the threat had been contained and she was pointing a weapon at an unarmed man. 

But he was a _bad_ man, a thug who beat starving children for a few extra coins. Who knew how many children, how many innocent people he’d hurt and possibly killed over the years? The universe wouldn’t miss him and it would be so very easy to just pull the trigger and make sure he never hurt anyone again.

“Rose,” the Doctor said, urgently this time. “You don’t have to do this. Give me the gun.”

He was right. This wasn’t _them_. 

With a deep shuddering breath, she forced herself to pull the gun from the miserable alien’s head and and hold it out to her husband.

He immediately tossed it to one of the soldiers and pulled her into his arms.

His familiar scent- a mixture of leather, sandalwood, time and something that was just _him-_ soothed her like nothing else could. Inhaling deeply, she buried her face in his battered leather jacket and just breathed him in. Eventually her seething anger receded, only to be slowly replaced with a growing guilt and horror at what she had almost done.

Feeling the change of emotions through their bond, the Doctor slowly prised her from his shoulder and held her in front of him. 

“Rose.”

“Doctor!” She shook, eyes wide with horror. “I can’t…I almost..I nearly….”

“But you _didn’t_ ,” he told her intently.

She bit back a sob. “But I nearly did. If you hadn’t come…”

“You didn’t. And you wouldn’t.” He gave her a crooked grin. “Know my wife, me.” He slid a hand to her cheek and cupped her face. “I could feel it, Rose- I could feel you fightin’ it. You fought the rage, and you won.”

She swallowed, her eyes full of tears and her voice shaking. “I….I _wanted_ to though. It would’ve been so easy. I could’ve.”

“But you _didn’t_ ,” he said again. “You didn’t shoot him, even when he was at point blank.” He kissed her gently. “You’re much better than I’ll ever be, Rose Tyler.”

“But I wanted to, Doctor. I wanted to, so much. It…it scares me how much.” Her eyes searched his face for some sign of condemnation or disgust, and found only understanding and a love so strong she wanted to weep.

He caressed her cheek, soothing the outer reaches of her mind with his own. “I know you did.” He barked a laugh. “So did I, Rose. As people go, he’s pretty rubbish and he was a threat. He threatened that boy and… he threatened _you.”_ He swallowed _._ “I could’ve ripped him limb from limb for that. I _wanted_ to.” He dropped another kiss on her mouth. “D’you know what stopped me?”

She shook her head, eyes wide and full of tears.

“You.” He smiled, stroking her cheek. “Your voice in me head, tellin’ me to stop, to find a better way, that no one needed to die today.”

“Really? You’re not just sayin’ that?” She said faintly, tears running down her face.

He leaned his forehead into hers. “Love, my conscience has had your voice since you shouted at me for meltin’ Rickey’s plastic head.” He grinned as he deliberately bungled  Mickey’s name and rubbed his nose against hers. “I’m so glad I met you.”

“Me too,” she whispered brokenly, clinging to him in desperation and trying to take comfort in those words of so long ago. Her mind churned, however, and she couldn’t help but wonder whether she was broken, now, whether she’d crossed a line and could never go back. What if her mum had been right, all those years ago? She was changing, becoming less human. What was she becoming? _Who_ was she becoming?

Once again, the Doctor read her emotions correctly through their bond and pulled back, cupping her face in both hands. 

“Rose.” His eyes blazed blue fire as his gaze met her own. “You haven’t done anything wrong. It was natural, love, instinctual for you to want to protect yourself and that poor lad, and once the adrenalin starts pumpin’ it takes a lot to come down. It’s part of how you’re wired, built into you and every species in the universe. Even me. Remember on Sotia? Remember when they…when they tried to break into your mind?” He swallowed heavily. “I threw ‘em off and I was so close to shreddin' their minds to pieces for tryin’ to hurt you. _You_ were the one who stopped me.” His eyes blazed with remembered anger and their bond pulsed. “D’you remember?”

She gulped and nodded.

“You brought me back, you talked me down. Do you blame me for that? For gettin’ so caught up, for what I almost did?”

She shook her head, trembling and said nothing.

“It’s the same instinct there, love- to protect yourself, to protect others. If you hadn't been there, if you hadn’t done what you did, what d’you think would’ve happened to that kid they were beatin’?”

She looked down, away. “They would’ve kept hittin’ him,” she whispered. “They could've killed him.”

He gently tilted her chin with his finger until her wet brown eyes met his own. “And if you hadn’t kept that blaster on them until the soldiers were close enough to help, what would have happened?”

She swallowed. “They might've tried to take him, or hurt him. Or they might’ve taken me hostage.”

He nodded emphatically, his blue eyes intent, _urgent_ , in their message. “Exactly. They could’ve hurt or killed one or both of you. But because of those fantastic human instincts of yours, you held ‘em off, saved the lad and made sure the soldiers could take the lot into custody.” His smile was full of fierce pride, this time. “Those instincts saved you both, Rose and brought that scum to justice.”

She nodded slowly as the intense shock and emotion started to lessen and her tears dried. She understood what he was saying, and intellectually, she knew he was right, but it was so hard for her heart to accept just now. It would take time.

Seeing the intense emotion slowly drain from her and the exhaustion set in, he nodded towards the captain and led her slowly towards the TARDIS, parked nearby.

“Come on, then. Reckon you need a long, hot bath and a nap.”

She nodded tiredly. “You’ll….you’ll stay with me?”

“Just you try and keep me away.” He grinned crookedly at her as he ushered her through the door. “Like a nice bath, me, ‘specially when the company’s good.”

Too drained to respond, she leaned her head against his shoulder for a moment as he set the coordinates and sent them into the vortex.

Slipping his arm about her shoulder, he led her slowly to their room. “Come on love, lean on me. Let me take care of you.”

And she did.

 

_Fin_

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! If you have any questions or comments I'm at countessselena.tumblr.com


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